Silicon Valley

a.k.a. the Valley

The geographical area in northern California, where there is a large concentration of high-tech companies and venture capital (VC) firms. Often referred to as "the mecca of materialism," the Valley is south of San Francisco and specifically includes Palo Alto, Mountain View, Menlo Park, Milpitas, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Fremont, Santa Clara, and San Jose.

Historical perspective: Frederick Terman is considered the father of Silicon Valley. He was a student at MIT around 1930 until he contracted tuberculosis which caused him to stay at Stanford University, where he ended up teaching. He cajoled two of his students, William Hewlett and David Packard, to form a company near the Palo Alto campus (resulting in Hewlett-Packard) and pioneered the creation of Stanford Research Park.